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Halfway to the Northern Territory, Inese told me to put on my glasses. They were clunky, larger than most sunglasses to ensure their wearer could see from all normal directions. Behind me, Lily checked her seatbelt.
“Ready?” Inese asked. My fingers tingled as I wrapped one hand tight around the joystick and rested my other hand lightly on the invisibility button. “I expect another box of raisin bran today.” She nudged her own glasses onto the bridge of her nose and stared ahead.
I pushed the button. The normal view switched to an outline. Everything had a dark, brownish tint from the glasses, but the edges of the ship was formed from red streaks and lines. They jittered with movement, a disorienting feeling of staring into a strobe light, but the controls were readily visible. I grinned. I could get used to this.
We continued flying invisible until we reached the Northern Territory. Once we landed, we set up a new target for shooting practice. This time Lily had a bit more luck teaching me the trick of aiming and firing. We practiced until lunch break. Then we sat in the back of the jet, munching on sandwiches and discussing the day’s lessons. “You’re doing better,” Inese told Lily, who ducked her eyes to the bologna and cheese on stale sliced bread.
“Thanks,” Lily said, a hint of pride in her voice. She paused. “Does anyone else hear a beeping?”
We fell quiet. A tiny beep cut through the hiss of wind on the outside of the jet.
“Actually, yes.”
We set aside our sandwiches and investigated, searching the jet for any hint of the monotonous, high-pitched noise. Inese frowned and removed a thick book of more technical jargon than I could ever understand from the glove compartment. As she flipped through the pages, something shifted on the GNSS screen, blurring the map into ones and zeros.
“Guys...” I tugged Inese’s sleeve and pointed to the screen. The numbers turned to letters, and then words, first in Russian, and then English.
...second Legion Spore... baby... help...
I frowned. A second legion spore? Had the first one spawned a child? Of course, that would imply it had a mate, unless it reproduced asexually. I scratched my head. The spacing of the words suggested the phrases were incomplete. When I tapped the screen, the letters vanished. A shiver ran down my spine. Why had the words appeared in Russian first?
“Is that where the beeping came from?” Lily asked.
Inese shook her head. “No, but someone’s trying to hack into our navigation.” She sat in the pilot’s seat and tried typing on the touch screen, but the screen was locked. “Odd. Let me try a system reboot.”
I leaned over her chair, checking the GNSS for enemy blips while she powered down the jet’s main computer. Nothing. “Any idea where it came from?”
“No. There’s no one else around—”
We are legion.
Cold sweat broke out along my back. The voices had an eerie, ethereal quality similar to the sphinx, but these were disjointed and painful, like dozens of men and women whispering at once, screaming, a cold terror pushing through us as we were bound to a steel grid and rails, our minds linked as one with computers—
I staggered into the copilot’s seat. My skull felt like several dozen hands were trying to fight their way out. I closed my eyes, focusing on the blackness behind my eyelids. Blackness, like the circle Gwen created. “We should get out of here,” I urged, digging my nails in the faux leather of the armrests.
The armrests were real. The sound of Inese flipping switches and engines roaring to life... that was real.
I took a deep breath—
The engines sputtered to a deafening halt.
My eyes snapped open. What in the Community...?
Remain where you are.
My heart thrashed against my ribcage as the voices found their way back into my head, hands merging into seamless skin, a fiery pain, too many voices—
Inese cursed, jarring me from the memory. I fastened my seatbelt, my hands shaking so hard I could barely clasp the latch. The mid-day sun bore down on us, blinding. My breathing sounded too loud in my ears—
A soft, whispery breathing coursed through our halls. Feet tramped along a metal walkway. Shivering, always shivering, the thrum of our heartbeats a single, steady pulse...
“Come on!” an angry voice snapped. Inese...?
The silvery knobs and gizmos of the jet’s dashboard spun in my vision.
“Damn it! Someone’s used techno sight to lock out the controls.” Inese waggled a small metal switch. A bright green light flashed above us.
Help us...
My muscles tensed. My throat constricted. The jet whirled in a blur of silver and light, and I dug my nails into my palms, weaving my vines around me. There were never any vines in the Legion Spore memory. The vines would keep me safe, remind me what was real—
The radiation burned us. Our limbs stretched, bending in unknown shapes and familiar algorithms. We were human once. What were we now? We are legion. We need a pilot. You could be that pilot...
Join us...
“Jenna!”
I gasped, shaking. Lily curled her sharp nails into my shoulders. I pushed her aside and hastily unfastened my seatbelt. Too confining... I doubled over and took a deep breath.
Lily bit her lip, worried. “Jenna? Are you back?”
I nodded, but missed whatever else she said as the engines roared with an uneven shudder. Inese slammed her fist into the dashboard and let out a mismatched string of curses about a lack of fuel for the supersonic jets.
Lily gaped at her. “You didn’t check the fuel?”
I blinked. Fuel—fuel was important. Wasn’t it? I closed my eyes and breathed softly, in and out, like Gwen had taught me.
“I checked it yesterday,” Inese protested, her expression bewildered.
Lily chuckled nervously. “Well, now we know what the beeping means.”
I nodded weakly, my stomach threatening to give me a second taste of the sandwiches we’d had earlier.
“I’m sending a message to Pops,” Inese said, furiously tapping the touch screen console. “We’ll have to wait until they’re closer to fly at high speeds. In the meantime—” She pointed to a red blip on the GNSS map north-east of Australia. “That’s enemy aircraft. I don’t want to be around when that thing gets here.” The red blip slowly moved closer to the large island. The blue blip of our airship on the other side was dauntingly slower.
Do not attempt to leave—
My leaves wilted, merging into the armrest and stretching into misshapen lumps of muscle. I opened my mouth to scream, but my tongue caught in my mouth. My lungs filled with water. Burning liquid stung my skin and green goo crashed around me, clogging my nostrils—
Lady Winters traced her prissy fingers along the glass of the tank. I win, Nickleson. Her lips curled into a cruel smile. I pounded my palms against the glass cylinder. The old woman threw her head back, cackling with throaty laughter. You cannot escape me. You can never escape me. Her voice wrung my mind like a wet rag. My body convulsed. I collapsed on a cold metal floor, breathless. A steel grid loomed above me, a low wail distant in my ears. The woman leaned close, her breath hot against my cheeks. How long until you break? I can go on forever, Nickleson. You should have accepted leadership when you had the chance.
I shook my head, whimpering, clutching my arms. I wanted my plants. I could wrap my vines around her throat, and I would kill her. I didn’t care if it was wrong, I wanted her dead. Dead. Dead. Dead—
Plants? I’d had my vines a moment ago.
My leaves bristled on my arms and I blinked, staring at the barren landscape ahead of the jet. Somehow I was still sitting in my chair. The memory was close, but nothing more than a memory.
Breathe—
“Going invisi—” Another flash of code crossed the GNSS, and I moved my hand to stop Inese. A cold-hot wave swept through me at the sudden movement, but once the black edges around my vision disappeared, the message on the screen cleared into distinct sentences.
The COE made a second Legion Spore. Val is having a baby. We tried to escape. Failed. Please help.
I blinked. Val? That meant Tim was the one trying to hack the jet. From where, I wasn’t sure, but if he was trying to escape, was he still on our side?
Inese snorted. “Serves them right.” She punched the invisibility button. The jet disappeared around me and I fumbled to refasten my seatbelt and find where I had left my glasses.
But Tim was trying to contact us. I couldn’t believe it. The timing was horribly wrong, but if he was trying to escape, then he might not have betrayed us after all. He might have been a double agent—like the thief who helped found the Coalition.
“We have to save them,” I said, my voice hoarse.
Lily coughed. “You’re kidding, right? That giant monster of death was just in our heads, and apparently going after those two, and you think we can help them?”
“No way am I risking my life for those traitors,” Inese snapped.
My shoulders sagged, a weight sinking in my chest. Tim gave me the tablet. He’d given us the locations of the time stones. Even if it was meant to be a trap, he had helped us. Val was the one who stole him away.
“What about the kid? We can’t leave it with the Camaraderie.”
“What would we do with a kid?” Lily protested. “Do you know what happens when you kidnap Camaraderie kids? That tower. That tower happens!”
I couldn’t see her, but I could guess she was gesturing to the distant city. And she had a point—the airship wasn’t exactly defended against Camaraderie attacks.
“I’m not sure,” I admitted. “But do you want it being raised around the Legion Spore?”
“I don’t care where it’s raised,” Inese spat. “I’m not helping them. If they wanted my help, they shouldn’t have stolen my car. Now, here’s to hoping she flies.” Inese powered up the engines and turned fast enough that even my powers didn’t compensate for the dizziness.
I swallowed hard, shivering in the jet’s air conditioning. Another memory attack, a message, and another Legion Spore...
How in the Community was I going to convince anyone to try rescuing Tim and his child?
